Holacracy: A self-managed company
Like Google, Zappos is another company that was renowned for its unique culture. It wanted to deliver happiness and treated its employees and customers as family. This shoe retailer got a reputation for turning culture into a corporate asset.
In 2012, Zappos adopted Holacracy. This is a management system first introduced in a software company, aiming at eliminating the above-mentioned messiness of human interactions. The goal is to help the company to achieve its full potential.
The messiness comes from the emotional distress of power struggles that emerge in bureaucratic organizations – in companies as we know them. To void that, Holacracy cancels traditional hierarchical management systems and uses a distributed network of roles within overlapping self-managing circles. Specific rules are followed. All voices are to be heard and contribute in order to reach rational agreements. No one is talked down by an extravert.
System for introverts
At Zappos, Holacracy was initially deployed in human resources. The whole company joined a year later. And the result?
An author of an article on the management-issues.com website attended a session on the innovative management system, facilitated by one of the trainers who introduced Holacracy to Zappos.
It turned out that Holacracy is a system designed for introverts. Its meeting dynamics is the one that introverts naturally use.
Do you want to learn more about Holacracy?
Check out this book:
ROBERTSON, Brian J.: Holacracy: The New Management System for a Rapidly Changing World. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2015. 240 p.
You can also read more in the successful book called Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose written by the CEO of Zappos Tony Hsieh. The Czech translation entitled Štětší doručeno was published by the PeopleComm company.
-jk-